This 10-Year-OId's Invention Could Save Babies From Hot Car Deaths

You've had a really long day, and now you need to make dinner. You're out of groceries, so you strap your little one in their car seat and head to the store. While you're searching for a ripe avocado, it hits you—you left your baby in the car. During the stifling heat of summer, this honest mistake could be fatal. However, a 10-year-old boy has invented a device that could help save your baby's life.

From Tragedy Comes Inspiration

According to Kids And Cars, an average of 37 children die from heat-related deaths annually, and that number has increased across the United States over the last year. With brutal summers, Texas has the highest number of hot car deaths in the country. For fifth-grader Bishop Curry V, this devastating issue hit too close to home when a 6-month-old in a nearby town died in a hot minivan. Bishop has a baby sister, so this tragedy sent him on a mission to create something that would protect her and other babies from such fatalities. "I heard about babies dying in car seats and they could have grown up to be somebody important," Bishop told Toyota, who highlighted the 10-year-old as in a young innovator feature. "It makes me pretty upset."

In January 2017, Bishop prototyped a 3D device he calls "Oasis" and started raising money with a GoFund me account to bring his concept to creation. He raised the money in a month and, as of February 2017, Bishop secured a provisional patent and began the device's design stage. So how does it work? As the local Dallas NBC news station reported, Oasis attaches to a car seat and detects if an infant has been left inside a car. It then blows cold air while alerting the baby's parents and authorities. "Fans activate to keep the child cool enough to survive being left in a hot car for at least 30 minutes," according to Toyota. Pretty genius.

Bishop's Got Talent

It may not come as a surprise, but Oasis isn't Bishop's first invention. His father happens to be an engineer for Toyota in Plano, Texas and has encouraged Bishop's continued innovation. The 10-year-old previously created a homemade catapult and ping pong ball cannon and has thought of ways to melt ice and snow on roads with using salt. You're on the right track, kid.